


Day 14: Overgrown

by Magpie_Crow



Series: Inktober 2019 [14]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Age Difference, Cryptid Remy, Gods, Immortality, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-14 16:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21018812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magpie_Crow/pseuds/Magpie_Crow
Summary: There was one place where Remy could never avoid the past. One place that Remy couldn’t avoid, period. In order to stay alive he had to visit. His was the only temple left in the modern era, turned from a sacred place of worship into a historical heritage site, with tour guides and tourists in and out on a daily basis.





	Day 14: Overgrown

**Author's Note:**

> And here we go with another doozy, but mainly because wordcount. It isn't quite as bad as Dragon was, emotionally.

“So the god gave us vines that grown on our skin, and bloom when we find out our love has the same feelings about us!” The young woman was showing a small child the vine running up her arm, and the child watched it in fascination.

“All ‘cause the god loved a human?” 

“Exactly! He wanted to know if the human loved him back!”

Remy started to tune out, he knew the next part of the story and he hated it. 

“Don’t be filling the kid’s head with fantasies.” 

He was brought back to the present as an angry looking man confronted the woman and child, arms crossed. 

“Blooming is all fine and well, but that’s not the only thing that happens.” The man pulled up his shirt, revealing a tangle of thorny vines creeping up his side. “Love doesn’t always go both ways, kid.”

The man looked like he was going to continue talking, so Remy cut him off. “Gurl, with an attitude like that, no wonder all you’ve got is thorns. Grow up, sister. Don’t take your failings out on little kids.”

One Angry Man growled at Remy and stalked off. The woman smiled at him. “Thank you, sir.” She turned back to the kid. “Want to hear the rest of the story?”

“Yeah!”

Remy stood and walked away.

~~

There was one place where Remy could never avoid the past. One place that Remy couldn’t avoid, period. In order to stay alive he had to visit. His was the only temple left in the modern era, turned from a sacred place of worship into a historical heritage site, with tour guides and tourists in and out on a daily basis. 

Remy was the last god walking the Earth. His vines, his legacy, kept his memory in the minds of mortals, therefore keeping him relevant. 

It was a little lonely, having to take snacks or drinks abandoned by sightseers as offerings, but Remy had lived this long and wasn’t about to give up. 

The tour guides were used to him being around. They didn’t know his true nature, of course, why would they? He was pretty sure most of them thought he was some sort of historian. Which was accurate, in its own way, just not entirely academic. 

“Morning, Rem.” Thomas Sanders, one of the senior guides, saluted him with a latte. “We’ve got a new guy coming in today, just to let you know. His first tour is in an hour.”

Remy flashed him a grin and nodded his thanks. New guides were always interesting. Sometimes he joined tours when he was bored, just to catch the guide off guard by a random question half-way through the tour. Senior guides no longer stumbled over the answers, well used to Remy’s ways, but new guides never expected him or the questions he asked. The best part about being the god of the temple is that he knew the best questions to ask about the carved reliefs on the walls.

He made his way over to the temple entrance, waiting for the tour group to gather. At least his day wouldn’t be spent wandering around and scavenging for offerings.

~~

It was rude of Thomas not to warn him that the new guide was _cute_. Despite the summer heat, he wore a dark hoodie and dark clothes, almost hunching in on himself when the group turned their attention to him. He had dark circles under his eyes, either intentional or from lack of sleep, and his purple hair gave him a splash of personality that Remy hadn’t seen in a tour guide in years.

All in all, he started out well. Remy could tell he enjoyed history, from the way his eyes glittered when he spoke of the construction of the temple and the kind of people who would have used it in the past. As they moved into the first hall, the tour guide seemed to open up, standing straighter and gesturing wider while he spoke.

Soon it was Remy’s time to strike. The relief on the wall was a depiction of him creating the first vines and planting them on a mortal’s skin. 

“’Scuse my intrusion, gurl, but what does this carving illustrate?” 

The guide looked a little startled to be interrupted in the middle of his talk about historic carving methods, but roused himself quicker than Remy expected.

“It depicts the god giving vines to his friend. You probably know how the legend goes.”

“The legend says they were lovers.”

Shrugging, the guide looked up at the relief. “See, I don’t think so. We’ve found thousands of depictions of the vine god. All of them show him half-naked, from all different angles.” He paused and gestured at the bare torso of the carving in front of them. “Never once has the vine god been depicted _with_ vines. If he really made the vines to see if the human he loved was in love with him, wouldn’t he put the vines on himself instead?” The guide was picking up steam again. “In my opinion, he gave the vines to a human so the human would know how his love life was going. Everyone says the legend has a sad ending for the god, but it just doesn’t make sense if we take any of the art containing the god into account.”

The tour group made considering noises, and Remy slipped away to watch from a distance. He’d never found a guide who actually thought the story through before. None of the guides had ever been right before, instead of just regurgitating information fed them by society. 

Remy hadn’t made the vines to judge the feelings of a lover. Well, not _his_ lover, at least. It had been a silly gift for a friend at first, and hadn’t been intended to affect all of humanity. He didn’t regret that it had, though. 

“Remy? Are you…” there was a shuffling of paper. “Gucci?”

He turned to smile at Logan Nguyen, another senior guide. “You bet, gurl! All Gucci here! So, tell me about the new kid?”

“His name is Virgil Shyer, twenty-three and interning here for his Master’s degree in History from Marion University. His ideas tend to be more theoretical, but on further inspection they have solid foundations.”

“Thanks, babe, don’t know what I’d do without ya!” 

“Find a more productive past-time than hanging about a historical monument, most likely.”

Remy shot Logan finger guns and winked. “Not even your absence could keep me away, gurl.”

~~

A soft footstep was all the warning he had before Virgil sat down next to him on the bench. “So, did I pass your test?”

“What’s that?”

“Roman warned me about you. Said you joined groups for fun.”

Remy glanced at him, but Virgil was staring up at the reinforced ceiling above them. 

“That you asked questions, and if you like the answer you would stay in the group. If you didn’t like it, you’d leave the temple entirely. The guides whose answers you don’t like don’t last long.” Virgil turned to look straight at Remy, a question in his dark eyes. “You did neither. So what is it, did I do well? Or am I gonna be fired soon?”

Remy hadn’t realized he had a pattern, and made a mental note to help Roman find money on the ground or something as a reward for being observant. 

“I don’t mind you joining the groups, just… Maybe give me a warning beforehand?” Virgil ran a hand through his hair, and Remy could see the edge of a thorn peeking out under his hoodie sleeve. “I’ve got anxiety, so having a fancy-pants historian watching me do my job unexpectedly is nerve-wracking.”

“You got it, gurl.”

Virgil smiled at him, and Remy couldn’t help but smile back.

~~

“What do you think the pool represents?”

Virgil shot an annoyed look at him from beneath his bangs. “Historians aren’t sure. It could be some sort of sacred pond in the realm of the gods, either sacred to all the gods or just to the one.” He pointed at the figure to the left of the carved body of water. “As you can see here, this individual has discovered the pool, via some method having to do with the symbols carved under his feet. There is some speculation that the first symbol is a loaf of bread, perhaps an offering, and the others are moon cycles. Either the offering has to be made on a specific day in the cycle, or there have to be multiple offerings for as many days as the number of cycles represents.”

Remy nodded a little as Virgil continued.

“The same figure is depicted at the right of the pool, only this time he is shown without vines, which possibly indicates that the god erases the vines of those who find the pool. There aren’t any written accounts of this happening, and the only temple with carvings associating a pool with the removal of vines is this one, so historians don’t have any concrete theories.”

~~

After the tour, Virgil left for lunch, coming back with two iced lattes. He handed one to Remy and flopped onto the bench, the same routine that they had followed for the past two weeks.

“Did you have to ask about that carving? If my professors find out that I made so much bull up off the top of my head, they might make me write a paper.”

Remy was glad he hadn’t taken a drink yet, as Virgil’s admission startled a laugh out of him. “You just- you just pulled that entire thing out of nowhere?”

“I made educated guesses, mostly.” 

“Gurl, you are something else.” He watched as Virgil took a sip of the cold drink. “You’re always wearing that hoodie. Don’t you get hot?”

Virgil shrugged. “I got a couple of thorn vines, don’t really want to show them off.”

Remy understood. Few humans had first loves turn out with roses.

“Have you got any?”

“Thorns? No. I’ve never had a vine.” Remy winced as the lie left his mouth. He hadn’t had a vine, but it’s not exactly like he could tell the object of his sudden, new affections that his back looked like an ivy trellis. 

Remy was a god, an immortal. He didn’t need to pile whatever was going on with him on a young human who would grow old and find someone to make him bloom.

“Hey, Rem, you’ve been neglecting me!” Roman Esparza draped himself bodily over Remy’s shoulders, making Virgil scoot away with a laugh.

“It’s Gucci, gurl! I’ve been on so many of your tours, it’s fun to break up the monotony!”

The older guide made offended noises. “I am _never_ mononto- whatever that word is. You just don’t want to admit that you like Virgil better!”

“Maybe I do, babe, what’re you going to do about it?”

Roman faked a swoon, stumbling off of Remy dramatically. “I’ve been betrayed! Virgil, defend me!”

Virgil snorted and ducked his head so they couldn’t see his face, and Remy realized something. Roman, huh? 

He wouldn’t admit to anyone, not even himself, that the thought of Virgil being in love with Roman sent a stab of pain through his gut.

~~

In the month that Virgil had been bringing him coffee during his breaks from the tour, Remy had felt more energized than ever. It could be the unintentionally intentional offerings he was receiving on a regular basis, or even the daily conversations he had with the first person he had ever felt anything for. Being around Virgil almost made him forget that he was a god, and immortal to boot. 

Even thinking about Virgil distracted him from his nature, as evidenced by the sudden jolt of knowledge that _someone_ had come across his sacred pool.

It didn’t take long for Remy to get there, seeing as he lived near the temple and his pool was hidden deep inside. Remy prided himself on the conditions he set so that archeologists wouldn’t stumble across it, including the deific pocket dimension the pool resided in. 

Which meant, however, that somehow, in some way, Remy had acquired a supplicant. He slipped through long-abandoned tunnels, down into the depths of his realm, only to stop short as he saw the back of his visitor.

He would recognize that hoodie anywhere. Instead of saying anything, he waited in the shadows to see what Virgil would do. It was interesting that the young human seemed to be wearing swim trunks, revealing dark tangles of vines on his calves. 

“Uh. Hello? I don’t know what this place is, I just dreamt of finding it and then… My dream came true.” Virgil started to shrug his hoodie off. “I… I think- if the vine god is here, if I’m not just hallucinating this entire thing… I think I’d like to ask for help?”

Remy almost gasped as Virgil’s hoodie hit the stone floor. He was overgrown with thorny vines, barely any pale skin peeking from between the snarls. “Who in their right mind wouldn’t fall in love with _you_?”

Virgil spun to face him, eyes wide. “R-Remy? How’d you… Never mind, I don’t even know how _I_ found this place. Do you know how the god takes the vines away?”

“Virgil, gurl, you don’t want that.”

“You don’t know what I want, Remy.” There was a light in Virgil’s eyes that Remy associated with desperation.

“I want them gone, Rem. I want to try and have a partner again, without them looking at me and thinking I’m broken for having fallen in love so many times.” He rubbed a tear away from his cheek, wiping off foundation and revealing the tell-tale shape of a vine on his face. “I keep falling in love, Remy, I can’t help it! But I’m so screwed up that nobody can ever love me back and it shows!”

Remy stepped up to him and rested his hands gently on Virgil’s shoulders. “I understand that it’s hard, gurl, but… The vine god is a jealous god. If you ask him to take your vines, he’ll ask something of you as well.”

“It can’t be worse than this, Rem.” 

“If you ever fell in love again, Virgil, all the vines come back. The god takes away the vines, but then demands you devote yourself to his service for the rest of your life.” Remy didn’t want to tie Virgil down, even as he could feel the vines on his own back growing up over his shoulders and down his arms.

Virgil turned back to face the water, crossing his arms defensively. His back hunched as he curled in on himself. “The only downside to that would be never being able to talk to you again.”

“Say what?” 

“I found new growth a week or so ago, Rem. The only person it could be for is you.”

Remy stared at Virgil, finally seeing the delicate green of a fresh vine climbing through the dead thorns adorning the human’s skin. A monster roared in his gut at the thought of anyone else leaving their mark on something that was _his_. 

“Close your eyes and walk into the water, up to your waist. Do not open your eyes, under any circumstances.”

Virgil stiffened at the instruction. Remy could almost feel the heartbreak rolling off the human. With a sigh, Virgil did as he was told.

Remy shed his jacket and t-shirt, letting his jeans melt into the wrap he used to wear at his waist, and followed Virgil into the water silently. 

The pool rippled around the human’s legs, but made no movement as its master traveled through. Remy felt the magic swirling around him, how glad the space was that he had returned. He hadn’t even thought about how long it had been since the last time he entered the pool. 

Virgil stopped as the water lapped at the halfway point of his body, so Remy circled around to face him. He cupped his face gently, and used a tiny spot of magic to clear the rest of the cover-up from Virgil’s face. The callousness of humanity stared back at him as sharp thorns on soft skin. 

Remy bent down and pressed his lips to Virgil’s, letting the ritual magic do its work.

~~

The magic buzzed through the human, coursing the length of every dead and dangerous vine. The vines belonged to its master, not to the mortals who saw fit to reject something its master found so, so precious. 

Magic was doing something different than it had in the past. Instead of wiping away the heartbreak and leaving unblemished skin behind, it was pulling the vines together, re-routing them to splice with the new growth that was a mark of its master. 

Master loved this human so, and magic would make sure the world _knew_ it.

~~

Remy pulled away, delighting at the sight of fresh, green vines, blooming all over with large purple roses. Virgil’s eyes were still closed, head tilted up towards him, and Remy gave in to the temptation to run a possessive hand over the largest rose on Virgil’s chest.

“Oh, babe” he purred, feeling the vines on his own skin bloom red at the sight. “I told you I was a jealous god. Open your eyes, darling, and look at me.”

Virgil opened his eyes and stared at Remy, uncomprehendingly, but only for a moment. 

“So _that’s_ why you’re always hanging out at the temple!”

~~

If Roman’s wolf-whistle when they walked in holding hands the next day made Remy’s walk a bit cockier and Virgil’s blush show despite the roses on his cheeks, no-one mentioned it. 

Logan did, however, hit Roman in the back of his head with a folder.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> I set up a Discord server! <https://discord.gg/gtWgvQ4>  
Join me to talk about my writing and stuff!
> 
> Find more on tumblr @we-are-fam-ily


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